


you know I dreamed about you

by torigates



Category: Sports Night
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-04
Updated: 2013-11-04
Packaged: 2017-12-31 12:20:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1031650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/torigates/pseuds/torigates
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five times Dan and Natalie almost get together (and one time they do).</p>
            </blockquote>





	you know I dreamed about you

  
1.

 

 

 

When she was just out of school, Natalie worked harder than all the other people in her graduating class, applying to any and every job posting she could get her hands on, while her friends were talking about taking trips or time off to figure out what they wanted to do.

Natalie could never understand that. She _knew_ what she wanted to do with her life. She always had. What she needed now was someone to give her the opportunity to do so. She just needed _one_ person to let her prove herself, and she knew she’d be the best damn television producer out there.

(Also, she swore to herself she would never move back in with her parents no matter how many times her mom asked, “Wouldn’t you rather save some money for a little while first, honey?”)

By the time a woman named Dana from a fourth rate show on a fifth rate network called her, Natalie had been to over a dozen job interviews and applied to countless others. She didn’t even bother to get her hopes up anymore.

“Hi,” Dana said, shaking her hand.

Natalie smiled her ‘please hire me’ smile and tried not to let her nervousness show. She was on her last ten dollars, and if she didn’t get this job she probably _would_ have to move back in with her parents (that or start prostituting herself out on the street, and don’t think she hadn’t considered it).

Dana talked a mile a minute about her plans for Sports Night, and the talent she had just stolen from some unknown show in Texas, two guys Natalie had never heard of before. Natalie gathered Dana had some kind of history with them from the way she talked about the main anchor, Casey McCall.

Finally, Dana took a breath and asked, “Why do you want to work at Sports Night?”

Maybe it was the way Dana talked to her like they were old friends, maybe it was the twelve failed interviews behind her, maybe it was desperation, or maybe Natalie really was just that crazy. Whatever it was, Natalie blurted out, “I only have ten dollars in my bank account.”

Dana stared at her, and Natalie tried really hard not to correct herself. She was pretty sure it was something like $8.85. She had bought herself a cup of coffee this morning.

“And I really love sports,” she hurried on. “Like really, really love them. I work hard, I’ll do anything: come early, stay late, whatever. I love television—”

Dana held up a hand before Natalie could get started on round two. “You’re hired,” she said. “Can you start now?” She smiled.

“What? Really? No, really? That’s amazing. Thank you!” Natalie jumped up and hugged Dana. “Thank you!”

“You’re welcome,” Dana told her. “Come on, I’ll show you around.”

Dana took her around the studio, introducing her to various people. Natalie tried very hard to take it all in for later, repeating names silently in her head and trying to remember where things were so she wouldn’t get hopelessly lost when she was on her own.

By the time Dana took her around to meet Dan and Casey she was completely overwhelmed. Both men smiled and shook her hand.

Casey held up his hand, gesturing towards Dana. “While you’re here I wanted to talk to you about a segment in the 30s,” he said. Dana walked over to his desk to look at whatever he was showing her, and Natalie took a deep breath, wondering if she’d ever feel comfortable here.

“Welcome,” Dan said, pulling her attention back to him. He was tall and had a great smile, and she felt her stomach flip over.

“Hi,” she said.

“First day, huh?” he asked. His hands were in his pockets and he rocked back on his heels.

“Yeah,” she said. “It’s a bit overwhelming.”

“Nah,” he told her. “You’ll be a pro in no time.” He smiled again.

“Danny!” Dana exclaimed, walking back over.

“What?”

“Don’t flirt with the new girl,” she said, taking Natalie’s arm and leading her off to the next stop on the tour. She saw Casey smack the back of his head.

“I wasn’t flirting,” Dan shouted.

Dana rolled her eyes. “Come on,” she said. “Don’t mind Danny. He’s just,” she trailed off. “Danny.”

Natalie ran to follow.

 

 

 

2.

 

 

 

Dan got handsy when he was drunk. Given the team’s frequent post-show celebration outings at Anthony’s, it was a fact everyone on the crew learned in a hurry. He’d throw his arm around shoulders or waists, pull Dana, or Kim, or Natalie into his lap and smile sloppily up at them.

It was a common occurrence after Dan had a drink or two in him to hear people shouting at him to _stop touching me, Danny_ , or _personal space, Danny_. It always made Natalie laugh and try as she might she could never bring herself to be as annoyed as she knew she should be.

Natalie was at the bar talking to Joe. She could hear Dan laughing behind her.

“Get off me, you big oaf,” Dana complained, but Natalie could hear a smile in her voice. “You are a walking lawsuit waiting to happen, I swear.”

Natalie smiled and rolled her eyes at Joe. She could hear Dan shuffling up behind her, and wasn’t surprised when she felt his arms settle around her waist.

“Hi Danny,” she said without turning to face him.

“Dana yelled at me,” he whined, and dropped his chin to her shoulder. Their faces were side by side.

“You were manhandling her,” Natalie pointed out.

Dan wrapped his arms tighter around her waist. She could feel his breath on the side of her cheek, smell the beer he’d been drinking. “I just wanted to talk to her,” he said.

“You don’t need her in your lap to talk,” she said, and grabbed his wrists, extracting herself from his grip. He reached out for her arm, to keep her from moving away too far.

She turned to face him, ready to roll her eyes at his ridiculousness, but something in his expression stopped her. He looked lonely, sad. She pulled on his wrist, yanking him toward her, and wrapped her arms around his neck for a tight hug. He held on.

After a moment she stepped back. There was a question in Dan’s eyes, and Natalie opened her mouth, not sure what was going to come out.

“Come on, Romeo.” Casey appeared at Dan’s side, slinging an arm around his shoulders. “Let’s get you home before you molest anyone else.”

She watched them go. At the door, Dan looked back over his shoulder.

 

 

 

3.

 

 

 

“Friends gear up for this kind of thing,” Dan told her.

After the show was over, and most people gone for the night, Natalie sent Jeremy home. He hadn’t liked it, but Natalie insisted. It was sweet that he wanted to take care of her, but Natalie needed to be alone to sort out her emotions.

She wandered around the dark studio, wondering if she had made the right decision. The feminist in her screamed that she had no other choice. She had to speak up to stop Patrick from doing the same thing to other women. The practical side of her asked, _why me? Why do I have to be the one to put my career on the line?_ She hated that she felt that way, but she was scared for what this meant for her future.

She spotted a light on in Dan and Casey’s office and walked over to turn it off. Danny was always leaving his desk lamp on, no matter how many times she nagged him to conserve energy.

“Hey Nat.”

Natalie jumped. “Danny,” she said. “Jesus, don’t scare me like that.”

He got up from his desk and walked over to her, putting his arm around her shoulders. It was reassuringly solid. “Sorry,” he told her, a slight smile on his lips.

She elbowed him. “What are you _doing_ here?” she asked.

He shrugged. “I couldn’t sleep.”

Natalie looked up at him, and felt a rush of affection run through her. She was suddenly, perfectly sure that he had stayed to make certain that she would be okay, yet somehow he had known she needed her space.

She leaned up on her toes and kissed his cheek.

“What was that for?” he asked.

“No reason.” She put her arm around his waist and he pulled her close to him.

 

 

 

4.

 

 

 

“Danny, stop flirting with girls who aren’t me!” she yelled at him from across the bar.

Dan looked over his shoulder and winked at her.

 

 

 

5.

 

 

 

After the show was saved, and they could actually go an episode or two without the network breathing down their necks, and she and Jeremy had finally and decidedly figured out that the two of them just plain didn’t work together, after all that Natalie took a good long look at her life and the people in it and realised Dan had been there all this time and she’d never noticed.

Natalie watched as he struggled to put the pieces of his life back together, and wanted so badly to reach out to him, to provide him with the support that he’d been giving to her ever since they first met. She found herself staying late at the office, just working side by side with him in silence, or staying late at the bar while Dan talked too much or too loudly, before calling him a cab and sending him home.

“Danny?” Natalie asked. The two of them were working in the board room. Dan was writing his script, having come here to escape the latest version of the Dana and Casey saga. Natalie found him there an hour earlier when she tracked him down with a question on the 50s. He’d smiled at her and answered, and Natalie sat down next to him. They’d been working in silence ever since.

“Yeah?” he asked.

“Are you okay?” It was the question Natalie had been working up to for months. She wanted him to tell her what was going on in the great enigma that was his brain. Sure, she had said those words aloud many times, but he always smiled and shrugged her off with an, “I’m fine, Nat.”

Now, the two of them were sitting together, and it just fit. It was peaceful. Quiet.

He looked over at her, and she could see the shadow of the sadness that had been haunting him for months, maybe years.

She wanted to reach out and smooth away the furrow between his eyebrows. She wanted to run her hands through his hair and over his body, and she wanted to pull him close to her and never let go until she could chase that sadness away forever. She wanted to make things easier for him, the way he made them easy for her. She wanted him to smile at her forever.

He held out his hand, and Natalie took it, threading their fingers together.

“Getting there,” he told her.

She smiled and leaned her head against his shoulder.

They stayed like that until the next rundown meeting.

 

 

 

6.

 

 

 

“You’ve been watching Sports Night; I’m Casey McCall alongside Dan Rydell.”

“And I’m about to ask out our assistant executive producer.” He grinned directly into the camera, that same smile Natalie had fallen for on her very first day.

No one looked at her as they rolled credits and wrapped up for the night (except for Dana. Natalie could feel Dana’s eyes boring into her skull. She ignored it).

Dan tugged out his ear piece and walked around the desk, calmly, like he hadn’t just announced on live television that he was going to ask her out.

“So what do you say?” he asked when he made it into the control room. His hands were in his pockets and he rocked back on his heels. “Do you want to go out with me?”

Natalie reached out and grabbed his tie, pulling him in for a kiss.

Around them, the crew catcalled. 


End file.
